Stroke and Fill in InDesign

In InDesign, a stroke or fill can only be applied to a frame or path.

Setting the stroke and fill of a frame is quite easy in InDesign, but first, you need to know about the bottom half of the tools palette at the left of the screen.

Fill and stroke area of the Toolbox A. Fill box B. Default fill and stroke C. Apply to Frame D. Swap fill and stroke E. Stroke box F. Apply to Text G. Color H. Gradient I. None

The Apply to Frame and the Apply to Text buttons determine whether you are going to access the frame attribute or the text attribute of your frame.

The Fill Box and the Stroke box determine whether you are going to access the fill or the stroke of your frame.

The Fill Box, Stroke Box, Apply to Frame and Apply to Text buttons are used in conjunction to determine what you are going to set. For example, selecting the...

Fill Box and the Apply to Frame box will apply the given color or gradient to the fill of the frame.
Fill Box and the Apply to Text box will apply the given color or gradient to the fill of the text.
Stroke Box and the Apply to Frame box will apply the given color or gradient to the stroke of the frame.
Stroke Box and the Apply to Text box will apply the given color or gradient to the stroke of the text.

Note: For the convenience of alignment, it is a good idea to align your stroke to the inside of your frame. The button for that option is on the Stroke palette right next to the text "Align Stroke".

Once you have that down, you can go ahead and set your stroke or fill using either the Swatches palette, Color palette, Gradient palette or gradient tool,